Scotland

Modern Scotland is a vibrant and beautiful country renowned for its rich diversity of artistic and cultural heritage. The country is also full of leisure activities and entertainment with restaurants, bars, clubs, museums, historic buildings, galleries, film, music, theatre and much more. But it does not just stop there; Scotland boasts a landscape of wonderful contrasts- varied regions ranging from busy cosmopolitan cities to quiet rural villages each with distinctive characteristics but all guaranteeing a vibrant mix of history, culture and entertainment, ancient castles and monuments, country parks and nature reserves.

A Diverse Country

A multicultural society with just over five million people; Scotland continues to attract people from all over the world to study, live and work and the people of Scotland are famous throughout the world for their hospitality and friendliness to strangers, which has ensured that Scotland has long standing international links. Scotland has been confirmed as offering one of the highest quality of life in Europe.

Academic Excellence

Scotland has a worldwide reputation for excellence in education with one of the world's most respected education system which was exported to the American educational system and is still in existence to date. For more than 400 years, a Scottish education has been among the best preparations for life and work. It has 14 campus based universities, The Open University in Scotland, 6 other non-university higher education institutions including two art schools, a conservatoire and 43 colleges of higher education all of which offer excellent education and promising career opportunities.

Accessible Graduate Education

Scotland's unique Credit and Qualifications Framework integrates all qualifications within a single system, making it much easier for students to move between courses and institutions, and ensures close links between schools, colleges and universities. So there are various flexible routes into and through the Scottish education system.

The high quality, quantity and diversity of Scotland's Universities and Colleges are remarkable compared to the size of the country. Statistics show that more students in Scotland successfully complete their courses than anywhere else in the UK, and that nowhere has a better record in getting students into jobs or further study.

International Students in Scotland

Careers service information is an important service that is provided to international students as well as assistance in finding relevant work in Scotland through the Fresh Talent Initiative which enables students at Scottish universities to stay and seek employment in Scotland for two years after graduation.

As part of its drive to secure its place in the global economy, Scotland is seeking a flow of Fresh Talent to flourish alongside native born Scots which is why over 200,000 students choose to study in Scotland; almost 30,000 of these students come from overseas from about 180 countries most of which are enrolled at graduate level. This represents 12.5 percent of the total number studying in Scotland. This is no surprise considering the wide range of individual and joint support services that are offered to international students by the Scottish institutions; some of these services include an international student adviser, orientation and induction, international society or international students club, and national societies. These are in addition to a range of services available across the campus such as sports and recreation; student health service; advice and counselling; English language courses; accommodation and campus police.

Funding

Students permanently resident in Scotland don't pay tuition fees and those with limited incomes are eligible for bursaries and there are a number of funding opportunities and scholarships available for International students in Scotland, usually available for graduate study.

Why Scotland?

With the diverse range of culture with a truly international outlook, the renowned quality of education provided by the universities and colleges along with additional services, it is no wonder that eight out of ten graduates from Scottish Universities said that, if they had the choice again, they would study the same course in the same university in Scotland and following a recently conducted survey of overall satisfaction levels across the UK; the proportion of students who said they were very satisfied was 91% for Scotland compared to 89% for the UK, 88% for England.

International students are sure to get a rewarding experience in Scotland because it is great place to live, study and work.